Finding comic community

Stephen (in a comment to the last post) pointed out another potential benefit to having a local comic shop--that it can be a gathering place where fans of an admittedly-fringe form of entertainment can meet, talk, get to know each other. He also points out that, for those without (or with!) a local shop and real-life comic-loving community, the internet and comic blogosphere can serve some of the same purposes.

I am, and have been for some time, a big fan of the internet as a networking tool for folks who have non-mainstream interests of many sorts (entertainment, politics, religion, etc.). As someone who has always tended to lean toward the alternative, and who has almost always live in a rural area, to me this seems pretty obvious. Other than my immediate family (the kids I'm training to like comics :)) I really don't know any other comic fans locally. I know a handful of folks who used to read them at some point, but no one who has anything like my own passion for them.

So I suppose I do regard the internet comic community (mainly the blogs, although to some extent message boards as well) as my comic community. I'm peripheral here, which is fine (I like to be peripheral, I'm strange that way), but I know that I can turn on the computer every day and find something interesting that someone else has had to say about some of the things I like best.

There are certainly limitations to internet community. For one thing, for the most part the need to maintain some level of privacy will keep a lot of us from really getting to know each other as we might if we lived in the same town and visited the same comic shop, maybe going out for coffee after we happened to run into each other on a Wednesday. My blog, like many, is a topical one. I don't talk a lot about anything not comic-related, and even less about anything more personal. For the sort of blog this is, I think that's appropriate. (It might be different on a mailing list, or somewhere like Livejournal with the filter system they have there, but I don't know.)

Another thing about the internet community is that there are many more people here than at your local shop. (I'm assuming, of course. :)) That means that there's a real need--just for social reasons--to break down into smaller groups. In particular, interest groups. Marvel fans, DC fans, indie fans, manga fans, female fans, feminist fans, Silver Age fans, 90s-era fans (again, I'm assuming), fans of particular titles, fans of particular characters, fans of particular character relationships, fans of a particular artist or writer, fans of large-breasted heroines, fans of bare-chested heroes--somewhere out there, if you are any of these, there is a community for you. It's a good thing because it allows us to spend our time where we'll be happiest and best entertained, but it can also be a little divisive if we let it (and often we do).

So as far as that goes, I don't feel the lack of a local comic shop. I don't feel the need to find RL folks to talk comics with. (Of course I kind of "grew my own," which isn't an option for everyone, plus you have to wait for them to learn to read. :)) But I'm antisocial. My need for community in general is probably lower than a lot of folks'. I can't say that someone else in my position wouldn't be desperate for comic talk over coffee. Just that, for me, right now, you guys are plenty of community.